Top tier junglers/top laners?

Hi, so I've been level 30 for quite a while now, and I'm planning to begin doing ranked soon. However, the lanes I'm most effective at is top and jungle, somewhat of mid and support, but that's not the point. What champions are my must haves for top and jungle?

Cho'gath's control over the objectives is amazing, but he can be held down, and if he's behind the teams behind a member while he stacks them stacks.

I'll add with what Salty said, who do you own, who do you play, and why do you play them?

Since you like jungling, you should know about the Jungler Tier list, and you should know who's good, who's meh, and who's awesome despite Stonewalls limited ability to test hundreds of junglers. He's great, I trust that list, but he isn't Batman, running the numbers on every champion and accounting for every single buff and happenstance isn't his job, it's just to give you a template.

As for junglers, Hecarim and Vi are VERY strong right now. Both farm the jungle very effectively. Both have excellent damage without committing to many damage items (I usually build one pure damage item, and one tanky damage item, then go full tank). Both snowball easily and carry hard. both can initiate a team fight from over 1000 range away (E+R for hecarim, Q+R for Vi).

If all that wasn't reason enough to play one or both of those champs, both Vi and Hecarim have an ability that is rare among junglers: the ability to LANE GANK.

I'm not talkin bout the kind of lane gank where you sneak into the side brush while the lane is pushed up, then engage when the lane pushed back. No, no, no, I mean the ability to straight up charge into lane at max speed and suddenly just be all up in the enemy's business out of NOWHERE.

This is particularly valuable as once the enemy support has sightstone, bot lane becomes very difficult to gank for most junglers. Hecarim and Vi can grab double kills bot lane whenever their ults are up and help feed your adc (though this technique works for all lanes)

As said, Xin Zhao, Jarvan IV, Lee Sin, and Vi are all very big in the current meta (professional level especially) due to mobility/armor shred/targeted CC.

I main jungle so I'll list a few others that I think are very important to have in solo queue: Maokai - gank machine, good utility; Dr. Mundo - super fast clear, strong counter jungle, huge meat shield late game; Malphite - powerful initiation and able to shut down enemy adc; Amumu - good ganks... better ult.

Now that's quite a list so I would make sure you are really good with at least 5. I try to keep a repertoire of about 8 junglers who I feel very comfortable with. This is mostly in reference to the jungle, but a good portion of them can be used top also.

Bonus vote goes to Nunu and Jax junglers. They're solid working junglers that're less seen than those big Jarvan and Xin Zhao junglers. Tons of Maokai's too, and Olaf is rather strong in the jungle still, but don't be pairing him up badly with your team mates.

Another vote goes out to playing Trundle. His engage and disengage is truely amazing, but the reliance on both Damage and Tanky items can put him behind if he isn't getting assists and kills. Tiamat is amazing on him too, AoE damage that works with your Bite, only AoE you gonna get too.

Maokai is an amazing jungler, to quote someone (stonewall I believe but am not sure) his ganks are mini malphite ults and are the easiest in the game with a ranged, targeted gap closer that also snares and is immediately followed up by a slow. Leesin is strong both in jungle due to his build path, and top because he is quite safe with double escapes although you need to learn how to abuse it. Jarven IV is also solid both top and jungle and is great in many team comps. I feel Vi is a little weak early laning but her ult is more or less a guaranteed kill. Lastly Jayce is a solid top for his potential build path and his skill set.

As for junglers, Hecarim and Vi are VERY strong right now. Both farm the jungle very effectively. Both have excellent damage without committing to many damage items (I usually build one pure damage item, and one tanky damage item, then go full tank). Both snowball easily and carry hard. both can initiate a team fight from over 1000 range away (E+R for hecarim, Q+R for Vi).

If all that wasn't reason enough to play one or both of those champs, both Vi and Hecarim have an ability that is rare among junglers: the ability to LANE GANK.

I'm not talkin bout the kind of lane gank where you sneak into the side brush while the lane is pushed up, then engage when the lane pushed back. No, no, no, I mean the ability to straight up charge into lane at max speed and suddenly just be all up in the enemy's business out of NOWHERE.

This is particularly valuable as once the enemy support has sightstone, bot lane becomes very difficult to gank for most junglers. Hecarim and Vi can grab double kills bot lane whenever their ults are up and help feed your adc (though this technique works for all lanes)

This. I had a feeling hec would become more popular at the beginning of the season when i learned they were nerfing oracles and introducing sightstone. The fact that he and now Vi can lane gank so well pretty much ignores the increased availability of wards, whereas for most junglers this made their life a lot harder

There are other picks that work well in certain situations and team comps (like Rammus, Shen, Jax, Kayle, etc) but I'd say pick one good tank to learn, one good bruiser to learn, and another champ you just find really fun and do it up.

I myself use Maokai, Vi, Diana, Hecarim and Kayle and find that one of that group is usually right for any situation.

Thanks for the responses guys! Really appreciate it. About Xin Zhao, Jarvan IV, and Vi, yeah, aren't they pretty much the holy trinity of jungling right now? I plan to buy xin zhao soon, as I already own jarvan. I'm a horrible jarvan though, because I sometimes click too slowly, and mess up my combo :p I'm somewhat new to jungling, so could you also give a list of some good beginner junglers? I haven't gotten the chance to try out maokai on the last time he was free (which makes me really sad.) Sigh, tried Cho'Gath a while back. While I love his kit and everything, I'm terrible at hitting his rupture. I always feel like it's so easy to dodge, same thing when I'm going against a Cho'Gath.

Also, looking for some more top laner mentions. May be a bit hard though, because I know there are a lot of hard counters up at top, (aka teemo vs. any melee or garen vs. everyone.)

Will list the top laners/junglers I have soon. I do have a good bunch of them, but I want to know if I missed anyone who's really strong right now.

Edit: Guess it also helps to mention that I love gap closers, and that skill shot cc's like Mundo's Q, I suck at hitting.

Ones I'm terrible with, or do not have much skill with: Jayce (can't seem to get the hang of him, I suck with skill shots so), and Riven.

Pretty sure that's it.

Also, I remember the only time I tried doing jungle Hecarim (was my first time jungling, did terribly but was hilarious), I just ghosted, e'd, and ulted into the entire enemy team. I felt like a Rammus but with phantom dancer...

I'd say you have a really good group of top laners. All of them are strong and they're pretty varied as to what they do. You have tanks, brawlers, and AP. I don't think you really need to add any other top laners to your group of Darius, Garen, Shen, Vladimir, Olaf, and Rumble. If you desperately need to add another top laner I'd suggest Singed and/or Elise. Elise is a good counter pick to most melee tops, and is good in teamfights. Singed is just Singed. The guy can destroy low elo games and is viable even at the highest levels.

Yeah, I've heard a lot about Elise from my friends. In my experiences from laning against Elise and Singed, they're highly annoying. But Singed is just less annoying early game, while Elise is just annoying throughout the game.